When can you really call yourself a photogapher?

[sun of sand]

isnt the only thing that makes someone a something
care?

i speak about sports a lot cause i know sports
i've been an athlete all of my life
im sure that i was better at 12 than 9 though

so how was i an athlete at 9?
i was because i did and did all the time
i cared about mastering intracacies others considered magic/god given ability

doesn't it all boil down to that?

you can be legally married
someone else deciding they'd like to have you as theirs
if you get divorced though and someone else doesn't

one has to be the truer
more caring
in every phase
before "becoming" something "officially"

you dont HAVE to sell or even be respected in whatever field
you just have to care
if you care
you will do
and if you do
you are

if you dont care enough to make art out of whatever it is youre doing
youre just the "snapshooter"


knowing where you are at in these terms
is something i believe many often simply avoid asking themselves altogether
thinking/hoping professionalism is something you acquire through met daily quotas

"take a picture a day"
"rule of thirds"
"give wife gift on anniversary, birthday, holiday or two, and one other day during the year"
"proper bedtime"
whatever other bs

 

[nolanr66]

I have a great wife and I am sure she knows everything so I asked her if I was a "real photographer" and she said "No, your just an old fool". I then asked her what pre-visualization was and she said "that is when you look at the living room wall and imagine yourself painting it"... So, what the heck I think I will grab a paint brush. I cannot figure out how to load pixels in my rangefinder anyway.

 

[fotch]

Wise beyond her years

 

[eddym]

I have a great wife and I am sure she knows everything so I asked her if I was a "real photographer" and she said "No, your just an old fool". I then asked her what pre-visualization was and she said "that is when you look at the living room wall and imagine yourself painting it"... So, what the heck I think I will grab a paint brush. I cannot figure out how to load pixels in my rangefinder anyway.

Wait a minnut..... are you sure you weren't talking to MY wife?

 

[Andrew Horodysky]

By definition when you take a photo you are a Photographer.

Just like when you cook a meal you are a cook, drive a car and you are a driver, and so on. There are plenty of greats out there that you never heard of. My crappy photo of my kid on vacation is way better to me than any photo a "pro" took for money.

I couldn't agree more.

I might add that in many European languages, the action translates to "make a photograph". When you "take", I believe, you run the gamut of "chance". When you "make", you act with certain determination and effort, regardless how casual.

 

[benjiboy]

People tend these days tend to define themselves by not what they do as a regular job to make a living, but by their leisure activity s where they can be whatever they want to be, whether real or fantasy.

 

[Rick A]

The other morning, my 12 year old daughter and I were walking around town. She had my OM-1 and was in the middle of photographing something, when she announced that she is most likely going to be a "filmographer". I just smiled an told her that would be a wonderful undertaking, and there was no reason to wait to grow up to do it. I rather like that title.

 

[2F/2F]

I called myself one today. I really didn't mean to; it just sort of slipped out to increase the clarity and brevity of a sentence I was delivering. I really hope I did not offend anybody by getting too far ahead of myself...

 

[marco.taje]

The other morning, my 12 year old daughter and I were walking around town. She had my OM-1 and was in the middle of photographing something, when she announced that she is most likely going to be a "filmographer". I just smiled an told her that would be a wonderful undertaking, and there was no reason to wait to grow up to do it. I rather like that title.

Absooolutely lovely!! Tell her she just started a Cult

 

[Stephen Frizza]

In death I hope to be remembered as a photographer.

 

[Ektagraphic]

When someone picks up the knowledge of the craft of photography and understates how to operate a camera and a light meter without any aid from the camera and is able to do so producing meaningful images, then, they are a photographer. It is not keeping your camera on automatic and firing enough pictures to put them together to form an animation. It is putting thought in to pressing the button...most times.

 

[benjiboy]

Absooolutely lovely!! Tell her she just started a Cult

And be very careful how you say it

 

[Thingy]

It's not when you call yourself a photographer, It's when people who are photographers call you one.

I would concur with this definition, for photographers, philosophers and poets.

Damn.... that means I'll have to call myself a polymath!

 

[Mainecoonmaniac]

As I get older, titles are becoming less important to me. Most people are like a diamond that has many facets. You'll miss the whole jewel if you just look at one facet. Calling me a "photographer" is not that important to me. I'm not what I do. However, I'd like to be called a "Renaissance man"

 

[Sirius Glass]

In death I hope to be remembered as a photographer.

I would not mind being known as one while I am still alive!

Steve